


Flower of Carnage

by barghest



Series: With Dishonour [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Cultural References, Extended Families, Extended Metaphors, F/M, Gen, Japanese Culture, Language of Flowers, Magic, Marriage, Non-Graphic Violence, Plants, Pre-Canon, Tattoos, Violence, Yakuza, and also, does anyone ever get so bored of tagging their stuff bc i do, kind of?, look sometimes i write het shit, spirit dragons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 05:19:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8877517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barghest/pseuds/barghest
Summary: Before Hanzo and Genji, there was a mother.





	

**Author's Note:**

> written for my hanzo rp blog bc i like to bring nothing but sin and unhappiness to my dear friends who rp with me. i'm posting the other stuff here too bc hell if tumblr gives me enough recognition for the garbage i spew out on a daily basis.
> 
> (a note: i am a white writer, and i would strongly appreciate japanese readers reaching out to me if they find any of my depictions/descriptions inaccurate and/or offensive. i try my best with my research, however i am always willing to acknowledge and learn from mistakes. thanks!)

Her name is Jun and they study botanicals together on Saturday mornings in Hanamura Gardens, working quietly in the humidity of the tropical house. One session, she peels sweaty strands of hair from her forehead, earth clinging to her fingertips, and asks him on a date. Two years later, he asks her for her hand in marriage. Potted bonsai in one hand and shears in the other, she says yes.

Jun is not oblivious of what the Shimada family is, and what she would be marrying into. The first time she visited his home, she felt the eyes of family guards on her back as she was introduced to his parents. When she bowed, the eyes settled on her neck, the angle of her head, the pins in her hair. She had dulled them ahead of time, careful to not present herself as a potential threat. Her own parents had warned her to be cautious - to not hold to him in the name of greed or fear - but she was capable of taking care of herself. There is no fear in her eyes when she meets her soon to be father-in-law’s eyes across the dinner table. (A touch disrespectful, but he never reacts negatively, seeming to silently relish her challenge.)

She is aware of the money changing hands, of the blood clinging to the fingers of her fiancé’s mother as she leads Jun around the family hot springs, pointing things out to her. The swords on the walls of the Shimada family home are sharp and the guns hidden from view have full clips, but it does little to make her hesitate. Hanamura’s murky underbelly does not bother her, particularly when her only view of it comes in the price of the food she eats and the tinted windows of the cars she rides in. One time, she is passingly present at a transaction, another time she overhears her brother-in-law being berate for sampling family product. None of it bothers her. Jun is difficult to phase.

It does not phase her, either, when she learns that she must be properly inducted into the family. Jun accepts without question. A tattoo needle buzzes through her flesh as it is softly explained to her what will come before she is permitted to be lawfully wed. Over time, a dragon rises, purple like the dusk sky, over her shoulder, its tail wrapping around her wrist - and Jun barely feels the sting as she listens carefully to her instructions, not watching the growth of scales on her skin. Only when the gun lies silent at the tattoo artist’s side does she allow herself to admire the handiwork. She has always wanted a tattoo, but has never had the time nor the tenacity to evade her family and responsibilities long enough to get one. The Shimadas fulfill her wish.

The dragon climbs over flowers as it climbs her arm. Tiger lilies, for wealth. White lilies, for purity. A single yellow chrysanthemum, imperial upon her shoulder. Jun touches them gently with her fingertips, counting the petals. It is beautiful, she tells her new family, thanking them for their gift.

The second gift is placed in her hands later, wrapped in silk. She stands at the centre of the room, dressed in white - Shimada family members ring the room, their garments traditional in nature, all quiet and respectful as they watch her. She is the centre of this show. Jun unfolds the silk to reveal the covered blade beneath, its sharp edge hidden beneath a sheath. She is difficult to phase, even with the weight of a weapon in her hands, with the weight of its purpose on her shoulders. Withdrawing the blade enough to inspect it, she meets the eye of her own reflection, staring back up at her. The weight bears down on her all the more, but she does not waver.

Jun bows, the silk returned to the elder Shimada before her, and lets her gaze settle on him expectantly. Not for the first time when they have made eye contact, he smiles, appreciative of the steadiness in her hands. She straightens her back as he moves away, leaving her alone. Jun closes her eyes for a moment, centring herself, the pad of her thumb passing over the indigo dragon set into the blade’s sheath. Her eyes only open again when there is a shuffling, then a soft thud of knees hitting the ground before her.

The man is quivering on the ground, hands bound with black. He huffs past a gag the same colour (he should be thankful, she thinks, to be bound with silk), no doubt trying to curse her with his last breaths. The sheath slides off of the blade and falls to the floor, but Jun only sees the shine of the katana’s tip as it gently pushes the man’s head forward, giving her a better view of his neck. Straight ahead of her stands her fiancé, but she never looks at his, not once. Her hands grip tighter around the ornate handle, and she remembers pruning bushes with him, the heat of the greenhouse somehow drawing them together. Dead parts must be cut off for a plant to flourish.

The blade comes down, and her kimono is dyed red, a splatter streaking up the middle until it meets with her neck, and then over her chin.

There is a tearing, like chopping through gristle and meat when preparing a chicken for cooking.

There is a snip of pruning shears snapping closed around the neck of a dying branch.

Jun does not blink.

After the wedding, she has a family craftsman set white carnations into the sheath of her blade, slivers of pearl fanning out into delicate petals. A wedding present to herself, and a warning.

She does not feel the strength of the Shimadas until six months later and a rival gang attempt to break into the estate when she is home with just two guards. Jun snatches up her shears as one gang member launches himself at her, and plunges the blades into his side - the roar erupts from her mouth, and her tattoo burns white hot under her sleeve as the scales peel away from her skin. The dragon is purple like the sky at dusk, like the lavender in her greenhouse, like the amethyst stones in her ears - it engulfs the man, strangling any sound from his throat as it devours him, and Jun feels the fire blaze in the pit of her stomach for the first time. It is electric in her flesh, flowing through her arms into the unfortunate soul beneath her. She leaves an ashen corpse in her wake, turning to cinder at the touch.

Her husband arrives home half an hour later, summoned by the emergency. Jun awaits him in the garden, pruning a small bonsai under a wisteria tree. He feels the heat in her arm and the fire in her eyes, and he takes her hands gently. She is truly part of the family now.

Jun looks up at the Shimada estate, with the white carnations swaying in the breeze near its entrance, a warning to anyone who may wish to trespass. She has never felt more at home.

**Author's Note:**

> additional note: the idea of an execution as part of becoming part of the family was inspired by a comic abt genji's 18th birthday and him having to do it to prove he's now a 'man'. i discussed it w the person who plays the genji to my hanzo and they thought it was a neat idea to have here too. so obvs in that respect, this is inaccurate to actual japan!!  
> as possibly is some of jun's behaviour(? i cannot confirm this atm), but - for the sake of fiction and me wanting to write her to be considered her husband's equal - i made her bolder, such as making the first move in their relationship. i hope that's okay, esp considering it's the future and maybe attitudes and social practices have changed somewhat. 
> 
> anyway w/e i hope someone at least liked it


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